Villas Residents Fight For Their Patch Of Grass

TAMARAC -- Ed and Helen Buskirk were looking for an ideal place to retire.

They thought they had found one, too, at Westlake Villas in west Tamarac. One of the things that made it so attractive: a small patch of grass abutting a lake behind their home.

That green space was pitched to them as a private park when they bought the house, the Buskirks said.

But a minor site plan adjustment recently approved by the city indicates it could become parking space instead.

``Our idea was to get away from doors slamming, lights, noisy cars,`` said Buskirk, a retired sheet metal worker from New York who moved into his Tamarac home in January. ``That`s why we bought this house, facing the park.``

A half-dozen other new residents tell a similar story.

They say they paid extra money -- up to $8,000, by their accounts -- for two- and three-bedroom homes to look out on the serenity of a small park and lake at this villa community west of Pine Island Road, off Northwest 77th Street.

And, they say, they are enraged by plans to pave over the park and create a 15-spot, intermittent parking lot in its place.

``It`s not much of a park,`` said Coral Springs attorney Barry Mittelberg, who represents six residents of Westlake Villas opposed to the parking lot proposal.

``But,`` he said, ``if you`ve been over there, you`d know they`re going to put parking right in people`s bedrooms.``

Bill Kraut, president of Westlake Villas Inc., said that some residents may have paid extra money for their property.

But, he said, it was not paid for a park view. Instead, he said, it was paid for such things as interior lots away from Northwest 77th Street.

As for the park, Kraut said he has to find a way to provide more parking to meet city requirements.

When the villa community`s original site plan was approved by the city in the late 1980s, it called for about 400 parking spaces for the residents of about 170 homes.

A handful of spots that were supposed to be paved in front of some of the homes never materialized, however, according to the city`s planning chief, Kelly Carpenter. Some of the spots have light posts. Some are grassy and unpaved.

The omission was not detected by the city until a few months ago, when some other residents contacted the city to discuss another parking concern.

A review of the site plan revealed the missing parking spaces, and the city told Kraut he had to find a solution.

Kraut said he looked at a few options with the city, finally settling on using the open space. He said the city requested that it be paved, not left grassy.

The lot is expected to be built by the end of the summer, he said.

According to Kraut, some patches of grassy space will remain around the edges of the lot, which he does not expect to be used very heavily.

He also said that an entrance to the parking space will eliminate one house.

``It was the most expedient, least harmful and most definite option,`` he said of the lot proposal.

Neighboring residents want him to consider another option -- leaving the park intact.

There may also be other options left, including applying for a waiver of the additional parking requirements, City Council member Norman Abramowitz said.

Kraut said he would consider such an application if it could be handled expeditiously, and if he had some indication he had a good chance of success.